Strongman Training

Strongman training involves building overall strength in the gym, and training with the implements used in strongman competitions. It is necessary to train the entire body for strength, focusing on the squat, deadlift and overhead press. Also important is explosive power, developed by Olympic style lifts, and cardiovascular conditioning.

Grip strength must also be developed. Like any sport, it is necessary to train using the equipment one encounters in the sport. In the case of strongman, these include logs, tires, yokes, farmer's walk implements, etc.; building strength in the gym is insufficient without experience with implements. Source

Functional or strongman training is specialized training with a particular goal in mind—specifically, to get strong. I mean really strong. You’ve probably seen the strongman competitions on TV. They’re the guys dragging semi-trucks, tossing enormous logs, running with extremely heavy, odd-shaped boulders, or otherwise performing all sorts of interesting and complicated feats of strength.

Created in 1977, the World's Strongest Man has become the premier event in strength athletics. For over 30 years, the strongest men on the planet have come together in a series of unique and amazing tests of strength to determine the World's Strongest Man. The competition has travelled to stunning and varied locations such as Zambia, Iceland, Mauritius, Malaysia, Morocco, China and the USA. Source

Preparing for a strongman competition requires special training—regular weightlifting just won’t do the trick. That’s because the feats of strength that strongmen are performing utilize multiple muscle groups at the same time. They’re not using their arms, legs, back, chest, and core muscles individually, but rather, they’re using them all at the same time. To do these kinds of activities requires routines that incorporate these same muscle groups into the training exercises. In ordinary bodybuilding, for the most part, you’re focusing on working individual body parts—one at a time.

Because strongman training routines are built around exercises that incorporate multiple muscle groups in the same exercise, it’s also known as functional training. This functionality also translates into one of the biggest benefits from this training—these guys are all-around strong. The things these guys do require not just strong arms, legs, chest, and back, but also a strong core and endurance, too.

With this type of training, you’re training multiple areas at the same time. You’re not just “lifting weights,” but you’re also sprinting and building up your endurance at the same time. This multi-pronged training approach enables you to train, develop, and strengthen muscles that would be nearly impossible to train with traditional bodybuilding.

Another advantage of strongman training is that the variety of training movements keeps your body guessing. When your body gets used to a particular routine, your results diminish. With the constantly changing variety of movements that are part of strongman training this is less likely to happen. The last benefit I want to mention about strongman training is that it can be an awesome way to burn fat—the workouts are very intense.

A major disadvantage of this training is that for some guys it can be tough trying to find a place to train because this training isn’t really suited to your average gym.

One way to train to become a strongman is to get the Lean Hybrid Muscle Training Program and equip your home gym with the necessary tools. This site has some of the best prices on strongman equipment, and most is made in America: